Who's in charge of our military?

With Obama in office and in his first week signing an executive order closing GITMO, as well as an order limiting CIA officials to interrogation techniques outlined in the Army Field Manual - one would think 'hey, America's back!'

But the neoconservatives who have entrenched themselves amongst the higher ranks of the military orders are not giving up so easily. According to the Huffington Post, the Supreme Nato Commander - General John Craddock - has come under scrutiny from his subordinates and alliance member states because of his barbaric tactics and one order in particular.

The Craddock Order literally granted a license to kill civilians to every NATO soldier under his command and required the soldiers to perpetrate a massacre of Afghani civilians who were merely 'suspected' of involvement in the drug trade.

The German Magazine Der Spiegel is reporting now that the objections of the German Military and Government, as well as of US Commander General McKiernan, have finally been taken seriously. General Craddock has rescinded his barbaric order. And soon Craddock may be out himself as reported by Der Spiegel:

But it may soon be Craddock himself in the hot seat. Already, there are those in NATO headquarters in Brussels, as well as in the alliance's military headquarters in Mons, who are speculating about "the last days of Craddock." Hardly anyone believes that the "hard-core Rumsfeld man," as some refer to him, will make it to the end of his term of service this summer. Craddock is seen as a leftover of the George W. Bush administration. It is seen as likely that his defeat in the just-ended dispute among NATO generals will speed his departure.

But it's not just the tensions and ire we drawing from our allies. New information has surfaced about efforts by some Pentagon insiders, including American Hero General Petreaus, to discredit the new President over his insistence on keeping with the Iraq/American agreement issued in November withdrawing troops within 16 months,

There are indications that Petraeus and his allies in the military and the Pentagon, including Gen. Ray Odierno, now the top commander in Iraq, have already begun to try to pressure Obama to change his withdrawal policy.

A network of senior military officers is also reported to be preparing to support Petraeus and Odierno by mobilising public opinion against Obama's decision.

This networked plan includes

The assertion that Obama's withdrawal policy threatens the gains allegedly won by the Bush surge and Petraeus's strategy in Iraq will apparently be the theme of the campaign that military opponents are now planning.

and there's more....

Keane, the Army Vice-Chief of Staff from 1999 to 2003, has ties to a network of active and retired four-star Army generals, and since Obama's Jan. 21 order on the 16-month withdrawal plan, some of the retired four-star generals in that network have begun discussing a campaign to blame Obama's troop withdrawal from Iraq for the ultimate collapse of the political "stability" that they expect to follow U.S. withdrawal, according to a military source familiar with the network's plans.
The source says the network, which includes senior active duty officers in the Pentagon, will begin making the argument to journalists covering the Pentagon that Obama's withdrawal policy risks an eventual collapse in Iraq. That would raise the political cost to Obama of sticking to his withdrawal policy.
If Obama does not change the policy, according to the source, they hope to have planted the seeds of a future political narrative blaming his withdrawal policy for the "collapse" they expect in an Iraq without U.S. troops.
That line seems likely to appeal to reporters covering the Iraq troop withdrawal issue. Ever since Obama's inauguration, media coverage of the issue has treated Obama' s 16-month withdrawal proposal as a concession to anti-war sentiment which will have to be adjusted to the "realities" as defined by the advice to Obama from Gates, Petreaus and Odierno.

The entire article is worth a read. One of the most interesting and sad part about these developments is that Mr. Obama is the President, he's the commander-in-chief. Folks in the military can grouse, but when the commander gives an order you get in line and do it. The military in this country has been enabled... some would argue (correctly) since the inception of the cold war. Prior to the cold war the military was not a specific interest competing for a majority of our federal budget, but in fact a specific disinterest - the military served, it's commanders issued orders not conspiracy theories. It really makes one look at General Petreaus in a different light and wonder if in fact the move on ad wasn't so extreme?

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Well Duh!

Drudge has a report up about an Atheist Soldier who alleges a pattern of Christian bias in the military. The complainant doesn't cite the criticism in recent years that the Air Force Academy as become a bee hive Colorado Springs style of Evangelicalism, but does cite:

The revised lawsuit criticizes the Army's 2008 manual on suicide prevention, quoting it as promoting "religiosity" as a necessary part of prevention and describing "connectivity to the divine" as "fundamental."

The lawsuit cites comments from a chaplain and a second soldier in Christian
missionary publications about attempts to convert Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the two soldiers' desire to distribute Bibles.

The lawsuit also notes that in 2007, the Air Force sponsored "Team Faith,"
which performs motocross stunt shows to "lead extreme sports athletes to Christ."

We knew about the second citation about attempts to coerce conversion through position as occupier over the occupied. And the other two don't surprise us. But to defend the military, at least they're not using religiously specific programming to help stem the tide of divorces. I suppose the overarching question is can we really be surprised by any of this?

Previously we found analysis that most people enticed to join the service were conservative and religiously oriented, a majority of whom are from the rural areas of the country, specifically the South and who have very little if any opportunity for advancement within their own communities.

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Gah, make me puke

Earlier today News reports stated that premarital sex is on the rise in Iran, the explanation of which is easy according to the Iranian Government's sociologist,

However, Hojatoleslam Ghasem Ebrahimipour, a sociologist, told Shabestan news agency that the trend was due to the availability of premarital sex, and feminism among educated women. "When a woman is educated and has an income, she does not want to accept masculine domination through marriage," he said.

Make me groan...

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Unlike this, Fogle's Fatwa ended as quickly and less spectacularly than sex with someone who has ED and no blue pill.

Damien Thompson the snark behind the spook at Holy Smoke, points out that one of the "mainstream" Muslim Advocacy Groups in the UK, who are the media go to people when it comes to Britains 'moderate' Muslims, are still after the identities (lives) of eight Sufi Muslims who assisted a think tank in their research of the amount of hate literature being distributed in Britain's Mosques. From their post "The Hunt for 8 Sufi Zio-Con Frauds":

MPAC now wants to find out exactly who these Sufis are, who are working for the Zio-Con think tank. There were 8 Sufis who worked for them, and all apparently have gone abroad to hide while the storm is raging. They worked, according to Policy Exchange for over a year on the project, so some Muslim out there must have come into contact with them.

Who are they, what are their backgrounds … MPACUK will dig deeper and expose every last detail of the Sufis who tried to destroy their own community.

If you know who they are – please write in and we will expose these men and women for all the Muslim community to see. Write in now and let us do what the incompetent idiots in the Mosque should be doing, protecting our community.

And while if you replaced the language for Muslims with language about the SC Blogosphere and SC 'Conservatism' and squinted really hard you might, just might, have read hints of Fogle, the fact is - his Fatwa, in longevity of interest and scale of vehemenence pales in comparison to these 'moderate' folks. Unlike this, Fogle's Fatwa ended as quickly and less spectacularly than sex with someone who has ED and no blue pill.

As if to underscore just how radical these 'moderates' are - just look at their home page. Everything that happens to Muslims are the 'Zionists' fault. (And if you feel like donating to the Muslim version of Human Events then click here)

And while I'm a liberal and by far not an ultra zionist or exceptionalist and believe that the two state solution is the only solution to the perpetual crisis of middle east politics, this is just too much and too disgusting. Are their are recriminations? Sure on both sides and we must admit that no one's hands are clean in this matter, but seriously?

The likes of Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda are a boil on the face of Islam, and one that has festered for so long that political leadership in so called nations are neutered and can't offer any sort of option to the radicalization of Muslims. Some states capitalize and utilize this, Iran and Saudi Arabia, while other despotic regimes are wary of democratization (as are the Western Powers that prop them up) because of the ideologies that have spread like a plague of Biblical proportion amongst the people, states like Egypt, Pakistan, amongst others. At some point in time the population will slough off the radicals and it can only come either at the tip of the sword or the tip of the pen with the preference being the latter.

Saying such though will get you burnt in effigy and Fatwa's placed upon your life. The Pope insulted the Islamic world when the "gotcha liberal media," to quote OLW, took his words out of much needed context - it caused an up roar.

Spike has an interesting book review for an upcoming publication that posits that Liberalism has created their own multicultrialist monster in an Islam that has become a caricature of itself as a response to European multiculturalism - it's own Dutch Cartoon series. I can acknowledge as much. Liberalism's understanding of multiculturalism - especially in Europe - though never as entrenched in America - shifted, to overemphasize the ghetto as an appropriate way to foster multiculturalism. As the review states, Liberals' "abandonment of the politics of universalism in favour of ethnic particularism, the shift from the politics of ideology to the politics of identity" helps create within various groups a fractured since of identity that is often times in contention with each other. "Multiculturalism didn't create radical Islam, but it [does] create a space for it..." Perhaps, though, the most saddening assesment of Liberalism that the review offers is this,

Twenty years ago, most liberals defended Rushdie’s right to publish The Satanic Verses despite the offence it caused many Muslims. Today, many argue that whatever may appear to be right in principle, in practice one must appease religious and cultural sensibilities because such sensibilities are so deeply felt. The avoidance of ‘cultural pain’ is seen as more important than what is regarded as an abstract right to freedom of expression.

This as the reviewer states has created a culture of greivences, which is why Muslims - and other groups (including >>gasp<< conservatives!) And while the liberal "outlook lies not in what opinions are held, but in how they are held: [in that] instead of being held dogmatically, they are held tentatively, and with a consciousness that new evidence may at any moment lead to their abandonment," (Betrand Russell) acknowledging ambiguity and the tenuousness of doctrines in our journey towards Truth doesn't mean one has to demure and simply roll over at the first sign of reproach.

This is how this voice of "moderate" Islam in Britain, the folks at MPAC, which probably exists in the physical world in the Muslim ghettos of London and South England, get to make such pronouncements and be taken seriously and as apparently they are by the media types like Channel 4 amongst others. This is how and why when Israel does defend itself generally the world is less than squeamish to support their efforts despite weighted justification, this is why Western Europe and especially Britain has a problem with matriculation (yeah they've probably forgotten that word), this is how in America the majorities of the right have learned (from the Muslim world and the old [now dead?] identity politics of the last 40 years) to take advantage of this built in liberal defect and frame pro gay rights movements as Christophobia, and frame abortion politics in context of America's original sin - slavery, both of which are arguements as absurd as Islamic conspiracy theorists finding ways of blaming everything on a Jew sitting in a room anywhere on the planet.

And while Fogle may not be pissed about this post, who knows how much I'll piss off the guy in Charlotte, Samir ibn Zafar Khan - our very own local Al Qaeda sympathiser and promoter, maybe I'll get a Fatwa like Rushdie, and those 8 Sufis.

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Christmas Wishes...

...from the President of Iran? Yes, Mahmoud is delivering the "Alternative" Christmas Message on Britain's Channel 4. What's surprising is the message is not at all what one would expect from such an ethnocentristic and ravenous lunatic. Remove the Muslim context and one could almost expect to hear such a message from the Pope, or even Jaba the Hagee.

[Aside: I'm sure some of my more 'librul' friends feel comfortable drawing similarities between B.XVI and M.A]

The full text from Ruth Gledhill:

In the Name of God the Compassionate the Merciful.Upon the anniversary of the birth of Jesus, Son of Mary, the Word of God, the Messenger of mercy, I would like to congratulate the followers of Abrahamic faiths, especially the followers of Jesus Christ, and the people of Britain.

The Almighty created the universe for human brings and created human beings for Himself. He created every human being with the ability to reach the heights of perfection. He called on man to aim to live a good life in this world and to work to achieve his everlasting life. On this difficult and challenging journey of man from dust to the divine, He did not leave humanity to its own devices. He chose from those He created the most excellent as His Prophets to guide humanity.

All prophets called for the worship of God, for love and brotherhood, for the establishment of justice and for love in human society. Jesus, the Son of Mary is the standard-bearer of justice, of love for our fellow human beings of the fight against tyranny, discrimination and injustice.

All the problems that have bedevilled humanity throughout the ages came about because of humanity followed an evil path and disregarded the message of the Prophets.

Now as human society faces a myriad of problems and succession of complex crises, the root causes can be found in humanity's rejection of that message, in particular the indifference of some governments and powers towards the teachings of the divine Prophets, especially those of Jesus Christ.

The crises in society, the family, morality, politics, security and the economy which have made life hard for humanity and continue to put great pressure on all nations have come about because the Prophets have been forgotten, the Almighty has been forgotten and some leaders are estranged from God.

If Christ was on earth today undoubtedly he would stand with the people in opposition to bullying, ill-tempered and expansionist powers.

If Christ was on earth today undoubtedly he would hoist the banner of justice and love for humanity to oppose warmongers, occupiers, terrorists and bullies the world over.

If Christ was on earth today undoubtedly he would fight against the tyrannical policies of prevailing global economic and political systems, as He did in His lifetime. The solution to today's problems can be found in a return to the call of the divine Prophets. The solution to these crises can be found in following the prophets -- they were sent by the Almighty, for the happiness of humanity.

Today, little by little, the general will of nations is calling for fundamental change. This is now taking place. Demands for change, demands for transformation, demands for a return to human values are fast becoming the foremost demands of nations of the world. The response to this demand must be real and true. The prerequisite to this change is a change in goals, intentions and directions. If tyrannical goals are repackaged in an attractive and deceptive package and imposed on nations again, the people, awakened, will stand up against them.

Fortunately, today as crises and despair multiply, a wave of hope is gathering momentum. Hope for a brighter future, hope for the establishment of justice, hope for real peace, hope for finding virtuous and pious rulers who love the people and want to serve them – and this is what the Almighty has promised.

We believe, Jesus Christ will return, together with one of the children of revered
messenger of Islam and would lead the world to a rightful point; to a world of love, brotherhood and justice. The responsibility of all followers of Christ and followers of Abrahamic faiths is to move towards that and to prepare the way for the fulfilment of this divine promise and the arrival of that joyful, shining and wonderful age. I hope that the collective will of nations will unite in the not too distant future and with the grace of the Almighty Lord, that shining age will come to rule the earth.

Once again, I congratulate one and all on the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ and I pray for the New Year to be a year of happiness, prosperity peace and
brotherhood for humanity. I wish you every success.'

Part of me wants to quote James 2:19, but even that's to harsh. I'm not adverse, however, to acknowledging the subtleties of the situation and quote Mr. Stephen Smith the head of Britain's Holocaust Centre, “Many of his political and historical views are very dangerous and do not uphold the views in his message. I think this benign message is deception. People need to be alert to the fact that this is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Whether this is really an act of deception is only known to Mahmoud, but his past actions and statements belie the point that as syrupy and sweet as the rhetoric may be there is vinegar behind the gilded flourishes of brotherhood and commonality.

He speaks of righting injustices, of being charitable, of fighting tyranny and discrimination, practically sings the Magnificat of Mary, though he is no Marian supplicant or imitator. To quote the same Jesus that Mahmoud extols:

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye (Matthew 7:3-5)

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Pirate Attacks are up! (wacky claim and oversimplification of the day)

If you've been following Matt Drudge these past few days the high seas swarming with Pirates. Sensationalistic Yellow Journalism aside, Pirates are more and more brazen these days -- especially off the East African coast.

Something else struck me though, this October was actually rather cold. So cold in fact that certain corners of society who have been adamant in their doubts about climate change had something to actually base their opinions on. And while they criticise Dr. Hansen, who works for NASA, made assertions about this past October being the warmest on record, I offer a different scenario.

It's the pirates... back in June we talked about the cult of the Spaghetti Monster and their beliefs on the inverse relationship between pirate attacks and global temperatures.

Perhaps it's (not) Occam's Razor that lends (in)credulity of such an explanation, but it's a hell of a lot easier to make this assertion as opposed to the foolishness that human activity and the release of green house gasses has little or no effect on the environment and climate around us. But hey, maybe I'm just being snarky.

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Challenge: Compare and Contrast

Anyone want to take on and compare/contrast the following two (3) statements?

From Pope Benedict:

"Today, nations once rich in faith and vocations are losing their own identity, under the harmful and destructive influence of a certain modern culture," said Benedict, who has been pushing for religion to be given more room in society. (Huff Po 10/5/08)

-and -

Benedict says that "now with the collapse of big banks we see that money disappears, is nothing and all these things that appear real are in fact of secondary importance." He urges those who build their lives "only on things that are visible, such as success, career, money" to keep that in mind. Benedict says "the only solid reality is the word of God." (Yahoo 10/06/08)

and from a member of Al-Qaida

"The enemies of Islam are facing a crushing defeat, which is beginning to manifest itself in the expanding crisis their economy is experiencing," said Gadahn, in a clip of the message distributed by the SITE Intelligence Group, a Washington-based monitor of militant Web sites.
"A crisis whose primary cause, in addition to the abortive and unsustainable crusades they are waging in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq, is their turning their backs on Allah's revealed laws, which forbid interest-bearing transactions, exploitation, greed and injustice in all its forms." (Yahoo 10/06/08)

There's the obvious difference in tonality - one, Benedict's, is a stern warning made out of charity, the other, Gadahn's, is vitriolic and made out of hateful glee. The challenge is to get beyond the tonality and into the substance of both. Two phrases stuck out immediately to me, "turning their backs on Allah's (God's) revealed laws," and "the only solid reality is the Word of God."

I can't help but understand that they're drawing from the same anagogic well, if you'll allow the image, in their criticisms of the financial crisis however differently they express it.

Any other takers? No responses will be turned away.

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WAR!

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Obama gets Heckled at Western Wailing Wall in Jerusalem

When I first saw the notice on drudge I figured it was a group of American Evangelicals, or perhaps PUMAs, two groups who may have been involved with holding McCain signs outside of Obama's Jerusalem hotel.

The AP, though, finally caught up with the details. Obama visited the Western Wall of the old Temple at Sunrise (Jerusalem time 7/24/08). Some orthodox fellows came to see him and meet him, and one lone voice cried out "Jerusalem is not for sale."

Obama joins a long list of public figures including First Lady Laura Bush and the late Pope John Paul II who have been heckled for making overtures to peace and reconciliation while praying at the sacred site.

The AP doesn't indicate, as Drudge does, that the protestations were very large or organized, but reports that the incident was isolated and seems to have involved only one person.

Photo from NRO

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The War is over

And "we" won.

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So why is he being released?

Abu Qatada, a radical cleric with ties to many terrorist cells and acts of terrorism is scheduled for release in Britain based on the notion that he would not get a fair treatment in his home country (Jordan).

I'm perplexed on how the court came to such a conclusion - is it because he was tried in abstentia? Or because there's a possibility he would face the death penalty or the prospects of a very long sentence in a very tiny prison cell.

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West risks obsession with Islam

The Times UK has an interesting article about a statement issued by the Vatican about the West's obsession with Islam, and about the need for a level playing field indeed in regards to all the world's religions when it comes to dialog and interaction.

...asked if there was a sense that Islam must not "monopolise" inter-faith dialogue Cardinal Tauran replied: "Yes, people are obsessed by Islam. For example I'm going to India next month and I want to give this message that all religions are equal. Sometimes there are priorities because of particular situations, but we mustn't get the impression there are first-class religions and second-class religions".

Cardinal Tauran said as much perhaps to down play the western notion that there's an impending clash of civilizations or to highlight the fact that Christianity is a persecuted religion the world round - not just in the Muslim Umma, signaling it to be a tragic mistake to proceed forward without that understanding.

This does not take away from the fact that the Pope is convening an international conference on Islam and Christianity this fall as a way to openly move forward on the "open letter," nor does it lessen the value and importance of demanding equanimity from the Muslim nations.

The cardinal criticised Saudi Arabia for not allowing Christian worship. “What is good for me is good for the other, so if it's possible for Muslims to have a mosque in the West, we should have the same in Muslim countries. This is not the case in many countries."

He said that last week he had celebrated mass at a new church in Doha, Qatar, consecrated a month ago. "It is a very impressive building. Now we're going to have a school there run by nuns. So this is an example of very good inter-religious dialogue with very concrete effects. In Saudi Arabia that is not the case yet."

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Iran to Jesus

So what does the Son of Man have to do with this crazy man?

Well according to news reports President Ahmadinijad can not wait for the return of Jesus Christ to the world to usher in an era of peace.

It's more complex than that though, because even though for Islam there is a "Second Coming" of Jesus in the world and he will bring justice and peace, the notions of who Jesus is is completely different than in mainstream Christianity.

"With the appearance of the promised saviour... and his companions such as Jesus Christ, tyranny will be soon be eradicated in the world."

Also it should be noted that the Mahmoud is a Shi'ite and a "12ver" at that, which means his notions and beliefs - even about Jesus are nuanced if not completely different than Sunni Muslims and therefore heretical.

All in all though, Mahmoud's continued prognostications are cooky and vile, especially those towards Israel even though the "battle desired" and "end results" sound incredibly familiar to someone on our side of the world and who is constantly touted as a great American Pastor.

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Tragically Ironic

The picture above is of the Ship USS Peleliu, from an article I read in the Guardian. The article is about a report which is to be released on the United States use of Prison Ships, potentially 17 total since the 9/11 attacks. The report alleges, "the United States is operating floating prisons to house those arrested in its war on terror, according to human rights lawyers, who claim there has been an attempt to conceal the numbers and whereabouts of detainees." The report is to cite sources inside the US Government, including the Military and other international governmental sources.

I titled this post tragically ironic in part because of the following information gleaned from the article:

According to research carried out by Reprieve, the US may have used as many as 17 ships as "floating prisons" since 2001. Detainees are interrogated aboard the vessels and then rendered to other, often undisclosed, locations, it is claimed.

Ships that are understood to have held prisoners include the USS Bataan and USS Peleliu...

To many younger Americans, and some baby boomers, the name Bataan probably doesn't mean much at all, but I became intimately aware of the significance of that small tropical Filipino peninsula when I was in ninth grade while doing a History Day Project on one of the victims from McColl, SC, and I'll never forget the horrors and tragedies associated with that location.

What many don't realize is that we weren't just attacked at Pearl Harbor that December day in 1941, we were also attacked in the Philippines as well as other smaller installations in the Pacific. Our Pacific fleet having been ransacked in an effort to shore up the Atlantic by what we presumed to be the greater threat of Hitler, we were caught off guard and left nearly defenseless with very little 'modern firepower' and only the courage of the men, American and Filipino, stationed in Luzon and Manila. Shortly after the initial air attacks on Pearl and Manila (the Pearl of the Philippines), the Japanese invaded and managed to push the Allied forces back through the following months to the tiny Bataan Peninsula towards what was a stocked Spanish American War Island Fortress, Corregidor, where presumably aid from the US Navy would come to carry off the defenders.

Aid never came, and what followed was a forced march of over 75000 American GIs over rugged Jungle Terrain under torturous conditions including forced starvation, beatings and humiliations and random acts of murder by the Japanese of not only the prisoners, but Filipino Civilians who dared offer any aid or comfort to the weakened GI's. The episode is recorded as the Bataan Death March, and unfortunately for surviors didn't always end at the "Death camps" in the center of the Island. No, Prisoners who in turn survived their tenure at the camps would be routinely forced to march northward to the coast where they would board prison ships and rendered to the Japanese Mainland from the Philippines to various work camps. (One of the more infamous of these ships being the Arisan Maru the ship which is believed to have been the one to hold the subject of my 9th Grade Project).

So it should be no wonder, in knowing this history, that to learn that a US Ship named in honor of the survivors of such a heinous event in American history is being used as a vehicle of imprisonment and allegedly torture, or even as a stepping point to torture (because that's what rendition is) is tragically ironic, outrageous and a disservice to the memory of so many who died at the hands of our enemy, an enemy who we then charged for such behaviour and called - war crimes.

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Jack Chick invades Iraq

From McClatchy Services:

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The U.S. military confirmed Thursday that a Marine in the Iraqi city of Fallujah was passing out coins with Gospel verses on them to Sunni Muslims, a U.S. military spokesman in Fallujah told McClatchy Thursday.
"It did happen," said Mike Isho, a spokesman for Multi National Forces West. "It's one guy and we're investigating."
The coins angered residents, who said they felt that American forces, whom they consider occupiers, were also acting as Christian missionaries in a predominately Muslim nation.
The Marine, whom Isho didn't identify, was passing out silver coins to residents with Arabic translations of New Testament verses on them. On one side the coin read, "Where will you spend eternity?" and on the other, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16."

This is probably the worst kind of PR for the Christian Faith as most Muslims already see this campaign as a modern Crusade, not to mention it follows on the scandal of a Serviceman using the Koran as target practice.

I'm sure the intentions of the soldier were good, but we're all aware of where those tend to lead. In this instance it's created a diplomatic nightmare and only increases misconceptions and mistrust about our presence.

It does speak to a broader under current within the millitary culture - a culture where a particular form of Evangelicalism has strained relations between soldiers of different faiths and even denominations from proselytizing efforts. I'm reminded of the huge mess at the Air Force Academy a couple of years ago that still simmers to this day. The military is right to take action in the event of impeding on one's freedom of conscious (as in the case of the Academy, where folks were isolated for their different beliefs), or in this instance potentially causing a diplomatic gaffe.

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When Modernity and Ancient Monasticism meet

I read an interesting article on the Monestary of St. Anthony in the Egyptian desert, considered to be the oldest, continuous Christian Monestary in existence. The crux being that the Monks considered to be the most ascetic in lifestyle, who still rise before dawn to chant and who still live retreat to the caves of the surrounding Red Sea Mountains to pray - now use cell phones, and operate a website, stanthonymonastery.org. One monk is quoted as saying:

"There is nothing wrong with microwaves or mobile phones -- they save time," Egyptian monk Ruwais el-Anthony, who has lived at the monastery for more than 30 years, said through a bushy white beard. "But God will ask you what you have done with the time that was saved."

The monks follow the rule of St Anthony who according to New Advent "...at the age of thirty-five, Anthony determined to withdraw from the habitations of men and retire in absolute solitude. He crossed the Nile, and on a mountain near the east bank, then called Pispir, now Der el Memum, he found an old fort into which he shut himself, and lived there for twenty years without seeing the face of man, food being thrown to him over the wall. He was at times visited by pilgrims, whom he refused to see; but gradually a number of would-be disciples established themselves in caves and in huts around the mountain, Thus a colony of ascetics was formed, who begged Anthony to come forth and be their guide in the spiritual life. At length, about the year 305, he yielded to their importunities an emerged from his retreat, and, to the surprise of all, he appeared to be as when he had gone in, not emaciated, but vigorous in body and mind..."

The monastery is under the Jurisdiction of the ancient Coptic Church whos Holy See is in the city of Alexandria purportedly founded by St. Mark the Evangelist. They are not currently in communion with Rome or Constantinople after the Council of Chalcedon over a Christilogical Dispute. Beyond having an interesting history and theology though is another tidbit from the article that I found amazing and wonderful.

The monastery, about 155 km (100 miles) southeast of Cairo, is now attracting so many prospective monks that it plans to turn everyone down for now, in part to ensure that only the most dedicated actually join.

Only about five new monks a year are accepted, out of dozens who express interest,
Ruwais says.

"Not having a job, not finding a wife, escaping family problems -- these are not reasons we accept," he says. "We put our novices under the microscope for three years, to make sure they are obedient."

Who says that vocations to the religious life are over, and what a rigorous test of faith and obedience these postulates are willing to bear, incredible!

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The Iranian Issue

The Jerusalem Post has two (three) very interesting articles today on Iran.

In one it reiterates a long time American (Israeli) security concern that a Nuclear Iran would simply spur development of a Nuclear Middle East - proof seen in 13 Islamic Nations drafting nuclear programs in the wake of Irans declerations of intent, from secular Turkey who would be least likely to develop a weapons arsenal, to the Wahhabist Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who views the Shia of Iran as heretics and foes.

In the other article, it is reported that the Bush Administration plans to attack Iran by the end of his term (January 19th, 2009). Sources said:

The official claimed that a senior member of the president's entourage, which concluded a trip to Israel last week, said during a closed meeting that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were of the opinion that military action was called for.

However, the official continued, "the hesitancy of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" was preventing the administration from deciding to launch such an attack on the Islamic Republic, for the time being.

This of course is in contrast to the recomendations of another key partner in the region, Russia, who believes it is as much a 'nightmare' to have a nuclear Iran, is urging restraint and a more nuanced approach. The Russian Ambassador to Israel is quoted as saying a more prudent approach would be that which the west used against Ghadaffi after the Lockerbie bombings,

The best advice, he said, was to "get Gaddafi's name off the front pages, leave him alone with his domestic problem, because he won't
be able to stand them."

"Regimes like that, Gaddafi and [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad, use outside threat as inner consolidation of the society. I am convinced of that," he said.

Rather than pushing Iran into a corner, Russia's position, Stegniy said, was designed to keep Iran at the negotiating table, and to keep the Intentional Atomic Energy Agency inside Iran. ...

"We will do our utmost to keep Ahmadinejad from having a nuclear weapon. It is the consensus aim. We may differ on the means, but we are united on strategy."

That position, it should be noted - concerning saber rattling for the sake of guising against Domestic distress is similar to what Barack Obama suggested this past Sunday: "Iran, Cuba, Venezuela - these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying, `We're going to wipe you off the planet."'

The question now is: will George Bush and his administration, with the country distracted by domestic problems such as the economy and skyrocketing fuel costs, use the authority granted by Congress in declaring the Iranian Quds a terror organization (thank you Hillary and John McCain), to extend the war from Iraq to Iran - furthering this cowboy diplomacy of going in guns blazing leaving yourself no ammunition to defend yourself from all of this missed shots you fired that has failed over the past seven years.

The irony being of course that one could argue that the actions President Bush and his war cronies are suggesting is the same saber rattling and distractions from Domestic ills that Mahmoud is using in Iran.

I don't have the ear of the President, who believes he has the ear of God vis-a-vis his warmongering council of Neo-Cons, but if I did, I'd urge - like our Russian partners - restraint. And against his predilictions for cowboy diplomacy, would recommend that he assert the Krauthammer Holocaust Decleration, which is and of itself a face of Neo-Con ideology if only a softer facet:

"It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear attack upon Israel [or other Middle Eastern Ally] by Iran, or originating in Iran, as an attack by Iran on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon Iran. ..."

while pursuing the more cautious diplomacy as advocated by Defense Secretary Gates and Secretary of State Rice, and leave it to the next administration, an administration that will be done with this cowboy mentality.

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A second Obama Apostate Article appears

H/T to Gashwin for forwarding me this article.

It appears that a second attempt to manipulate Islamophobia in the Presidential Race has appeared. Shireen K. Burki is an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington, in Fredericksburg, Va and who has extensive ties with the Marine Corps as a consultant is the author of the latest bit.

It's found in the Christian Science Monitor, and much like Edward Luttwak's piece from the NYTimes, attempts to connect Obamas seeming cultural-hereditary ties witht he Umma with reasons why he'll be the target State Sponsored Assassination attempts in the worst case scenarios and an impediment to foreign relations with the Middle East and the entirety of Dar al Islam in all other cases. But Ms. Burki takes her argument a step further. She insists that terrorist organizations (Al Qaeda) will also see President Obama as a worthy target as an Apostate to the religion and as leader of the Great Satan - especially if he takes a "hard line" in regards to the Middle East (further warmongering).

Ms. Burki argues:

According to Islamic jurisprudence, children of a Muslim father – even an apparently nonpracticing one, such as Obama's father, and irrespective of the mother's faith – are automatically Muslims. Most Muslims around the world agree: A child of a Muslim father is a Muslim. Period. Should Obama become US commander in chief, there is a strong likelihood that Al Qaeda's media arm, As-Sahab, will exploit his background to argue that an apostate is leading the global war on terror (read: attacks against fellow Muslims). This perception would be leveraged to galvanize sympathizers into action.

But why would everyday Muslims galvanize around this call - well her response is very similar to Bittergate.

"Al Qaeda, though, has struggled recently to recruit volunteers for this jihad. While bin Laden retains significant support as someone willing to stand up for Muslim concerns, most Muslims abhor Al Qaeda's terrorist methods whose primary targets are innocent noncombatants.

But an apostate as head of the United States could change this equation. It would be a propaganda boost for Al Qaeda's mission. All one has to do is read Al Qaeda's public statements to recognize how frequently it makes baseless apostasy accusations against fellow Muslims who challenge its message or actions. ...

Conservative Muslim populations that are riddled with poverty and low literacy rates can be more readily swayed to join the cause against the "Great Satan" (the US) if their imams and mullahs shout that it is led by an apostate."

So Mr. Obama should he be President and who according to John McCain is Hezzbolah's candidate (Shia Islam) is now the favoured Candidate of Al-Qaeda (Sunni Islam) an organization that is theologically as well as politically opposed to Hezzbolah, Iran, and Shia Islam (heresy!) in general.

To respond to these charges by two well respected individuals who draw paychecks from Conservative (Republican and NeoCon) institutions and the (rather Hawkish) War Department, I refer my dear friends to an article in Huffington Post by Ali Eteraz. He has many strong arguments the basis of which goes back to the notion of simply being born to a Muslim Man = a Muslim is a fallacy:

Religion is not hereditary as it is in Judaism. Islam is not a race. Just because a child has a Muslim father -- which, again, Obama didn't -- doesn't mean anything unless the child is being raised as a Muslim. At the time of birth, Muslims engage in a symbolic act -- of saying the Call to Prayer in the child's ear -- that renders a child Muslim. If Obama's father was agnostic/atheist, then he wouldn't have done such a thing.
No call to prayer in the ear, not raised as a Muslim, born to an atheist father, and then abandoned to a Christian mother both by father and his family, equals not Muslim. Obama is right to say he had no religion until he became a Christian.
Those who actually study Muslims see that there are millions of inter-religious marriages -- between Muslim men and Hindu women for example -- in which the children are being raised as pantheists, or even, Hindu. When these children grow up, they aren't killed for being apostates (though some Muslims do thumb their noses at the father for "allowing" his children to be raised non-Muslim).

In a way it's fortunate to see that such a whisper campaign, no matter how contrived and nonsensical, being brought to the surface so that writers such as Mr. Eteraz and other more serious scholars without potential biases (such as who's paying them) may step forward and rectify these ludicrous accusations.

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A new Holocaust Monument

In this country we've been so consumed with the political hot potatoe of Gay marriage this week, that we've forgotten at the very essence of this issue we're dealing with... people.

At the same time that the California Supreme Court was issuing it's landmark decision on Gays and marriage in another part of the world a city was moving forward with the decision to honour fellow sufferers of a tyrannical period in our human family's history, the Holocaust.

The Jerusalem Post reported that the city of Tel Aviv is moving to memorialize the thousands of homosexuals who died at the hands of Nazis in concentration camps as well as honour those who survived.

When Tel Aviv city councilman Itai Pinkas was in Amsterdam last year, he stared for a long time at the monument honoring homosexuals killed in the Holocaust, sensing its impact was going to stay with him for a long time.
When he got back to Tel Aviv, he took that powerful feeling and raced straight to Mayor Ron Huldai's office to talk. Now, Pinkas and Huldai have revealed the outcome of the meeting: Tel Aviv is going to be home to the country's first memorial to gay victims of Nazi persecution. The public sculpture is slated to go up in the centrally located Gan Meir by midwinter. "Now these innocent victims will be remembered forever," said Pinkas. "There will be a reminder to all of us of what happened in the past, and unfortunately of the persecution that still continues in the present."

Homosexuals were required by the Nazi regime to wear the now familiar of gay pride, the upside down pink triangle. No sure numbers are recorded as to how many were sent to the camps and to their deaths but according to wikipedia the upward limits of German Nationals (not including Czech, Polish, Dutch, French, etc) homosexuals is estimated to be 15000. Again from Wikipedia:

In 1936, Heinrich Himmler, Chief of the SS, created the "Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion." Homosexuality was declared contrary to "wholesome popular sentiment," and gay men were regarded as "defilers of German blood." The Gestapo raided gay bars, tracked individuals using the address books of those they arrested, used the subscription lists of gay magazines to find others, and encouraged people to report suspected homosexual behavior and to scrutinize the behavior of their neighbours.

(emphasis added) The cynical side of me wants to note with no undue sarcasm that of course those sentiments aren't being expressed in our modern society as evidenced by the rhetoric of the current debate.

The monument that Tel Aviv is planning to build is described as follows from the Post:

Three iron panels, each 5 meters wide and deep, and partially buried, will form a 3-dimensional triangular pit, from which light will stream. Names of the registered homosexual Nazi victims will be inscribed inside in Hebrew, though the actual number of victims and every name is not known. "The pit inside the triangle represents the deep well of hatred that homosexuals faced and is a metaphor as the dead-end of being in a concentration camp; the inability to escape," says Pinkas. A dedication will also be inscribed in English. Assouline's design was selected as "the most creative and simple. We did not want something extravagant."

This monument will join a handful of monuments to these victims around the world, including two within Germany (Frankfurt and Berlin), Sydney and of course Amsterdam.

Of course the critics of those activist judges who have embraced arguments of the unnaturalness of homosexuality, its impurity and ruinousness result on the institute of marriage would never realize that the root of their arguments are the same arguments that just a century ago precipitated the mass murder of not only countless gay men but of over 6 million Jews.

Perhaps it's the shared history of suffering, but Israel, who just celebrated her 60th Anniversary is the most progressive state in the Middle East region and is up in the world on LGBT issues. To tie it into the American controversy, according to Wikipedia: Israeli law recognizes same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. It is the only country in the Middle East and all of Asia to do so. It does not, however, allow same-sex couples to marry. It should be noted that civil marriage doesn't exist in Israel for heterosexual couples, either, and therefore no marriage not sanctioned by religious authorities can take place within Israel. (This restriction forces not only gay couples, but also all mixed-religion heterosexual couples and any person who wishes a non religious marriage, to marry outside the country.) (emphasis added) Israel learned early to not be entangled in the marriage business.

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Muslim Cleric says Rome shall soon fall

Can't believe I missed this the first time around on Fox News at the beginning of the week. But I just read it on CNS.

"Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our Prophet Muhammad. Today, Rome is the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital, which has declared its hostility to Islam, and has planted the brothers of apes and pigs in Palestine in order to prevent the reawakening of Islam – this capital of theirs will be an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread through Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, and even Eastern Europe."

I had found at one point in time a hand drawing from an fanatical site of what St Peter's Basilica would look like as a mosque - it's jarring to say the least about having such an idea planted in your head. Could it really happen? Well the Europeans in 1400 didn't believe that Constantinople would fall to the invading Turks and looked to capitalize off the Turks advances to the further detriment of New Rome. Thus today the Hagia Sophia is a former Grand-Church-Turned-Mosque-Turned Museum. On the other side of the coin though, think about moorish spain. Even today people attend services at the Mezquita in Cordoba Spain. The Mezquita was once a grand Mosque and when the Christians reconquered the region they converted it to a grand Cathedral.

The theme of conquest in Islam has been a part of the Muslim mindset since shortly after the conception of the faith. How else would this theme transmit from generation to generation from people to people if it weren't a built in component.

Pope Benedict suffered ire from Muslims world wide feeling insulted by his quotation of a Byzantine Emperor Manuel II:

"...he [Manuel] addresses his interlocutor with a startling brusqueness, a brusqueness that we find unacceptable, on the central question about the relationship between religion and violence in general, saying: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."[3] The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. "God", he says, "is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably (σὺν λόγω) is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death..."

But the point is valid and none the less true. After studying Islam (only scantly I'll admit) I'm more of a Spencerian and very cautious when it comes to the precepts of Islam. But the central question still remains... will the Muslims convert Rome to Rum? It's possible, but at this point in time not probable.

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